1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been developed an image pickup apparatus for obtaining a stereoscopic image. The image pickup apparatus has two taking optical systems arranged side-by-side along the horizontal direction of the image pickup apparatus (e.g. digital camera body), on which light from an object enters simultaneously, and two CCD sensors provided respectively for the two taking optical systems to convert optical images formed by the respective taking optical systems into image signals. This image pickup apparatus obtains and reproduces a stereoscopic image using the difference (or parallax) between the two images thus obtained.
In a prior art image pickup apparatus, at least one lens provided in a taking optical system is shifted to obtain parallax images using the one taking optical system in a time sharing manner.
For instance, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-323065 describes a digital camera that shifts at least one of the plurality of lenses arranged on the optical axis in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the optical axis to obtain images with horizontal parallax.
In the electronic camera described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-41381, as with Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-323065, at least one of a plurality of lenses arranged on the optical axis is shifted in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the optical axis to obtain images with horizontal parallax.
A stereoscopic image forming apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-171221 has shifting means for changing the relative position of an object and an image pickup unit that picks up an image of the object to obtain images along first and second directions.